1. Field of the Invention
The system of this invention resides in the area of water drainage systems and more particularly relates to an underground water discharge system that receives water drainage from such sources as a building's roof gutter through down spout extensions, underground pipes, sump pump discharges and the like that are directed to an underground pipe and then disperses such water drainage underground into the subsoil to prevent surface flooding and provide deep-root irrigation to plants.
2. History of the Prior Art
In many buildings, such as home dwellings, water drainage from the roof gutter system through down spouts and their extensions as well as sump pump drainage and the like can cause an excess of water to accumulate on the surface of the ground that the soil of the home's yard cannot readily absorb, thereby causing undesirable flooding of yard areas around the home. This flooding is a nuisance to homeowners and is not only unsightly, but also in some cases can damage plants, rot building structures and destroy carefully maintained lawns. To combat and prevent such flooding many homeowners install dry wells which are subsurface storage facilities that receive and store water runoff from roofs and/or sump pumps. The discharge of this stored runoff from dry wells occurs through infiltration into the surrounding soil. Dry wells can be structural chambers as well as excavated pits. Sometimes these pits are filled with aggregate, but they tend to soak up water from surrounding areas and become over saturated, rendering them useless. Dry wells can only be used where sub grade soils have sufficient permeability rates. If the dry well is not effective, anaerobic conditions can result, leading to odor and water quality problems and even the promotion of mosquito breeding. The soil around dry wells must therefore be sufficiently permeable to allow a reasonable rate of water infiltration.
The construction of dry wells is well known in the art and in one simple embodiment can be a pit surrounded by a number of cement blocks arrayed in a circle, often in an arrangement that has the blocks positioned closer and narrowed near the top of the pit, so that a conical structure is created. There is no particularly desirable form for such simple dry wells. In some cases dry wells can be plastic, barrel-like structures, in some instances made of polyethylene, and have a plurality of large apertures, such apertures being several inches in diameter formed therein to promote drainage into gravel placed therearound. In some instances a series of dry wells are utilized, one flowing into another. Some dry well structures can be surrounded with a porous, filter-type, geo-tech fabric wrap to keep soil from entering into the dry well. They can be surrounded with stone aggregate to increase the leaching capacity of the water into the subsurface soil. Dry wells not only can have an underground water inlet, but also can be provided with surface drains and vents to the surface of the ground. Dry wells are not used for any kind of sewerage and have quite different specifications from those of septic systems. Dry wells are generally placed beneath the surface in areas where vehicles or other heavy objects will not interfere with their operation.
One of the co-inventors herein is a co-inventor of U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,703 for an Encapsulated Turf Maintenance System which discloses elongated, porous conduits made of a mixture of Portland cement and activated charcoal, such conduits disposed horizontally in a grid pattern for the purpose of underground fluid exchange in the turf area of playing fields.